Have you heard of any POWER IBM i sites that have multiple LPARS defined
on their IBM i for the specific purpose of applying IBM PTFs to a
non-production LPAR first?
Or having a separate IBM I server dedicated to testing PTFs?

Rare? Common?
Seems to me that it could entail much effort and cost for a small risk.

If one did a separate LPAR for this purpose, how would one perform a
full system test afterward?

It seems to me that one would need to also install all data and software
to the new LPAR, and have users sign on and perform a full system test
of all applications.

Our POWER6 does not have multiple LPARS. It has JD Edwards World
Financials, Distribution, and Manufacturing, which interfaces to Trusted
Link EDI and several other software packages, and to our web portal and
CRM application.
It appears to me that we would need to run all our business applications
in a new LPAR dedicated to PTF testing, right?

I have installed numerous PTFs in the past seven years over several OS
releases onto our production IBM i machine and never experienced any
problems stemming from an IBM OS upgrade or PTF install. Yet some here
frequently express significant anxiety and reluctance to my suggestion
that we remain current on IBM PTFs.

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